Is Working From Home Balanced?

Most of us start our home businesses with the idea that it will improve our worklife balance. The joy of being where you want to be is great, and as a work from home mum or dad you can be the one to do the school run and your commute to work is never that long.

I mean it must be really easy to strike a balance between your work and your home life when they are in the same place, or is it?

02’s recent Small business survey has found that “Nearly half (49%) of small business owners forgo a work life balance and spend time outside of working hours to get things done” That’s a shocking statistic but one that I can easily believe.

However the Holy Grail of Work Life balance might not really be achievable when you are working from home, however I am not saying you are not happy. It is more about the fact that work and life go hand in hand, they are not separate anymore.

No longer are you leaving work at work, it is there with you every day, including weekends and even when you are at the gym. My time on the cross trainer is my thinking of new ideas time, so is that work time or life time?

When you start working from home you may find that you are working more hours than you have ever done before, 50+ hour weeks are not uncommon. Although that is a lot of hours to be working, when you work from home that can be fitted in to what you want to do.

You don’t have to be doing regular office hours any more, if you want to take some time off in the afternoon, you can, and if you want to work until the early hours of the morning that is also possible too.

During the school holidays I get up really early and start work at 6am and I can get a few hours work done before my children wake up, then when they are in bed I can start working again.

Both of these times are outside of regular working hours but I have also spent time during the day doing fun stuff with my children, I am not forgoing a work life balance even though I am working outside of working hours.

I know I am not alone there are thousands of us mums and dads working from home, enjoying work, working long hours and also enjoying the fun life stuff too. I may not have the traditional work life balance where you leave work at work but I wouldn’t change it for the world.

I would love to hear how you balance your work and the fun stuff, let me know in the comments section below.